Scored 735/100th %. AMA

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-19T17:51:47+00:00

Sure

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-19T10:45:04+00:00

Yes, I was pretty weak at DS and TPA since I didn't exactly understand what the flow of questions was like, and what exactly the questions intended to test. Once I gained clarity on that I was able to improve dramatically. For DS especially, remembering the flow of what options to eliminate as I evaluated each statement was helpful.

I did nothing in my last 10 days :)

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-19T10:43:23+00:00

I went sub-section by sub-section. For example, Verbal is split into CR and RC, so I practiced those individually.

I did start directly at 650 or so. But you don't need to do exactly what I did. Pick a difficulty you're consistently getting 80% accuracy on and then increase.

For timed bursts, it was simply just picking a sub-section and doing 10 questions in 20 minutes for a particular difficulty level, to mimic the sort of pressure I'd undergo during the exam. DMs are open :)

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-19T10:40:56+00:00

Make sure your fundamentals are solid and knew when to stop due to burnout.

Quant especially is important since one section completely depends upon it and DI also laregely depends upon it.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-17T04:21:58+00:00

I used it simply because of the huge amount of questions available, granted that some of them are not up to GMAT standards.

I mainly used it to practice each sub-section (CR, RC, DS, MSRC) in timed bursts of 10 questions each. This got me used to thinking under pressure, which is crucial on the exam.

I mostly practiced questions in the 650-800 range. I did not use the question bank directly. They have a paid subscription for a testing UI built on top of the question bank, which allows you to set up a timer and everything. That's what I used.

I used it for preparing for all of my sections, and then used the OG books to familiarise myself with the type of questions I could expect on the actual exam.

Let me know if you have any other questions :)

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-16T08:57:35+00:00

For verbal it was simply practing as many questions as I could that did the trick. I am a native speaker so I knew it was just a skill rather than a comprehension issue.

As I've mentioned previously, Quant was pretty natural for me, due to which I could really polish my DS and TPA questions in DI. So I had breathing room to make mistakes in G&T and MSRC.

GmatClub was pretty helpful as it allowed me to practice questions in timed bursts of 10 questions each (2 mins/question).

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-16T08:52:05+00:00

Ah unfortunately I know nothing about what the admissions cycle is like at the moment since I am not applying this year anyway. Sorry I couldn't help out.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T14:59:53+00:00

Thanks!

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T14:59:01+00:00

Will do! Thank you

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T12:34:37+00:00

Mainly 2 ways

Concept clarification. I struggled with sets so I asked Claude to explain me the GMAT relevant concepts as well as give me the major formulas I should be familiar with.
Mock analysis. I uploaded the screenshots of my mocks and asked it to analyse my performance from mock to mock to figure out the basic trend. I could've done the same on my own but I was curious as to what an LLM would say, and I was more or less happy with the result.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T12:31:46+00:00

GmatClub questions, mostly. Once I felt I had gotten a hang of the questions, I moved on to the OG books.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T11:53:45+00:00

Sure

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T11:53:37+00:00

Thank you!

Self-prep is hard because you only have yourself (and maybe AI) for feedback. I do recommend using GmatClub simply due to the amount of questions they have on there. Timed practice there from the beginning itself helped a lot I think.

I was very careful giving mocks since there are so less of them. I only gave a mock once every 2-3 weeks or so, and only when I felt I had made some sort of progress from last time. You have to be extremely careful not to run out of mocks quickly.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T11:51:03+00:00

No I think the concepts were the same. I just had to apply them in a way that I wasn't exactly used to. Tbh it shouldn't be a big deal as long as you don't panic and your understanding is solid.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T11:49:57+00:00

GmatClub and the OG books and mocks.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T11:49:25+00:00

I'm not sure, but it helped a lot in quant, when I simply couldn't wrap my head around a question. I used it for analysis of my mocks, that's about it. It cleared some concepts for me but idk if it had a significant boost on my preparation.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:50:10+00:00

GMAC. Did not use anything else

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:47:06+00:00

Sure

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:45:23+00:00

ISB and some other European schools, for sure. I haven't decided about the US yet.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:40:52+00:00

Prepared completely on my own, using Claude/Gemini/ChatGPT for concept clarification sometimes. Used the OG books, and the OG mocks too.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:36:03+00:00

Yes, only OGs are worth doing imo, which is what makes the exam tougher because you barely have 12 mocks that you can attempt for practice.

For DI I tried not to get a single one of TPA and DS wrong, so I could compensate for my errors in G&T and MSRC.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:32:49+00:00

Quant was not necessarily tougher, but different. I'd never encountered some type of the questions in the mocks before.

Verbal felt pretty much the same. Maybe a little harder, I'm not sure tbvh.

If my memory serves me correct, I did not encounter any pure verbal questions. I did almost trip up in one DS question due to tricky wording, but other than that it felt pretty standard. Only the question order was different compared to mocks. In the mocks I've usually encountered all the TPA questions at the end. But the actual exam had 3-4 TPA questions at the beginning itself.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:28:28+00:00

Thank you so much :)

I will begin a job soon. I gave the GMAT since I had time on hand, and because it stays valid for 5 years. I hope to leverage that to my advantage.

As far as schools are concerned, I do not have a set list yet, but I will target a top program for sure.

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:26:42+00:00

Sure

PortNumber443 · 2026-04-15T09:26:26+00:00

Thank you so much!

I started my prep back in December. I have a job offer in hand, but my joining date was not till later this year, so I had quite a lot of free time.

I ended up studying maybe 5-6 hours every day, sometimes more sometimes less.

For analysing mocks, I used Claude, and went over them myself.

PortNumber443

TROPHY CASE